The U.S. Sentencing Commission published a request for comment in the Federal Register seeking public comment and feedback on its list of tentative priorities for the amendment cycle ending on May 1, 2019. This is part of the annual amendment cycle, during which the Commission reviews and revises its guidelines. This year, the Commission is focusing on whether the time has come to prioritize amending Chapter Eight to cover drug-related offenses. Broadly defined, those offenses might include drug trafficking offenses, misbranding and adulteration of drugs, the sale of unapproved drugs, and dispensing certain drugs without a prescription. The Commission will not make final decisions on this subject until it has heard from the public. As such, those that have thoughts on this topic should consider weighing in with this opportunity of giving them feedback. If adopted, this priority could lead to guideline changes with a potential impact on the pharmaceutical, health care, and certain retail industries. This may in turn impact the seven standard elements of an effective compliance program, and, in turn, the work of compliance officers.

Therefore, those that have thoughts about the proposed changes have the opportunity to have their ideas brought before the Commission. This includes whether this should be a priority for them now and, if so, how broad or narrow they should be on this issue. One area to consider is whether there are ideas and suggestions as to how the Commission should study this issue area over the next couple of years. At any rate, the Commission has opened the door for public feedback, ideas, and suggestions; however this is time sensitive in that the Commission will make its final decision on priorities at a public meeting in August, after considering all the public comments. If this is something of interest, more information is available at the Commission’s website.

Richard P. Kusserow served as DHHS Inspector General for 11 years. He currently is CEO of Strategic Management Services, LLC (SM), a firm that has assisted more than 3,000 organizations and entities with compliance related matters. The SM sister company, CRC, provides a wide range of compliance tools including sanction-screening.